Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Politics is a spectrum. In the 1970's and into the 80's the Democratic party was dominated by liberals that kept the ideas of social justice, opportunity, and the well being of all of us in the minds of the American people. When there were political debates these issues were always at the forefront. Then along came Bill Clinton. He saw that they only way to get elected was to move to "the middle of the road". So what happens when you walk down the middle of the road? You get run over, which is exactly what happened to the Democrats under Bill Clinton. By moving to the center he shifted the spectrum rightward, allowing extreme voices like Newt Gingrich to become part of the conversation. As the Democrats shut out the voices on the left, the Republicans were able to embrace the voices on the extreme right. Bill Clinton thought he was moving to the middle of the road, but he just enabled the Republicans to move the road farther to the right.

And it hasn't stopped moving. Today's Republican candidates are so far to the right that 20 years ago they would have been so fringe as to not be worthy of consideration. But now they are actually being taken seriously. We may laugh at the things they are saying but the press continues to give them coverage as if they were real candidates, and the American people are hearing the garbage they are saying. The conversation has moved way too far to the right. Some one needs to grab that road and yank it leftward a couple of light years so that these right wing extremist wackos fall right off and get drowned out by some reasonable discourse.

Enter Bernie Sanders. A true liberal he has not sold out the ideals and values that were once the heart of the Democratic party. And while the mainstream media is doing their best to shut him out, people are listening. He has struck a nerve with millions of Americans that know our country can do better and are tired of having the political process bought and sold by greedy rich people who care only for their own bottom line. But right now Bernie is still the lone voice on the left (along with Elizabeth Warren). The Democratic party machine is still firmly in the center-of-the-road Hilary Clinton camp. We need to support Bernie and start moving the conversation to the left. Bernie Sanders is not a fringe radical. His policies are common sense "let's do the right thing for America". There are plenty of people far to the left of Bernie, but they have been banished from the Democratic party and their voices mostly silenced. Let's help Bernie move the conversation back where it belongs. Instead of having the public discussing wether we should be denying citizenship to the children of immigrants, lets get people talking about how American can once again become the land of opportunity as it was when my immigrant grandparents came here. Let's help Bernie move the conversation back to the unfinished business of ending the institutionalized racism that 50 years after the civil rights legislation is still alive and well. Let's help Bernie move the conversation to the left so that minority voices, now almost completely drowned out, can once again be part to the political process.

So please join me in supporting Bernie Sanders for president, and please tell your friends and loved ones to do the same.